Two campuses within the University of Wisconsin System announced Tuesday they are offering employees a voluntary retirement buyout with a one-time payout equal to 50% of an employee's annual base salary.

The buyouts at UW-Oshkosh and UW-Green Bay offer the same payout, but the eligibility requirements are different. At UW-Green Bay, the offer is being extended to all employees 55 and older who have at least five years of service. At UW-Oshkosh, employees must be at least 60 and have 25 years of service to the state to be eligible.

Tuesday's announcements bring to four the total number of campuses seeking to reduce their workforce through voluntary buyouts in the face of state budget cuts. UW-Eau Claire was the first campus to make the offer, followed last week by UW-Superior.(298)

Re-sentence cuts decades from pimp's prison time

A Milwaukee pimp who had been facing virtual life in prison could be out decades earlier after a resentencing ordered by a federal appeals court.

Last year, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa hit Sean Patrick with 30 years in federal prison -- consecutive to a 20-year term he was serving in state prison for killing a rival pimp.

In doing so, Randa pointedly rejected a federal prosecutor's recommendation that Patrick get 25 years, concurrent to the state time, in consideration for his cooperation on other investigations.

The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and ordered a new sentencing. It was perplexed because Randa had said he was giving Patrick the consideration of not imposing a life sentence, even though that was the practical effect of the sentence he did hand down.

"Most worrisome is our inability to discern whether the court appreciated the severity of the sentence it imposed, and in particular its equivalence to the life sentence that it had purportedly rejected," the 7th Circuit wrote.

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